‘I Am Leaving This Event Loving San Diego More’

Voice of San Diego's fifth "Meeting of the Minds" arts and culture event was March 14 at Bread and Salt, a century-old bakery in Logan Heights. / Photo by Sam Hodgson

We had a lively and interesting night at Voice of San Diego’s fifth “Meeting of the Minds” Thursday. Nearly 300 people joined us at Bread & Salt, formerly Cramer’s Bakery, in Logan Heights for our pecha-kucha-style evening highlighting different sides of San Diego culture.

I’m still soaking in all that we heard. Sam Hodgson captured reactions from several of you — here are some short videos and tweet highlights from the night.

Bread & Salt is a historic bakery that is being revamped by architect James Brown. Brown started the night with a look at his plans for the space.

Susanna Peredo dove into ARTS: A Reason to Survive, the nonprofit arts organization that gives troubled kids art training and support — work that helped propel a film about one of the group’s kids, “Inocente,” to an Academy Award.

Melinda Lee was excited to hear from Bliznakova because her daughter is performing in the chorus for San Diego Opera’s “Murder in the Cathedral” and will be wearing one of the costumes discussed in Bliznakova’s presentation.

(San Diego Opera shared a 20 percent discount code with Voice of San Diego — you can see more details here.)

Adrian Florido brought some friends with him to explain (and perform!) son jarocho, Mexican folk music.

Next, Michael Prinz shared his five picks for the best coffee he’s found in San Diego.

Mary Lydon, executive director for the Urban Land Institute’s San Diego/Tijuana chapter, said she was planning a trip for the very next morning to Caffe Calabria, one of the coffee shops Prinz highlighted.

“I am leaving this event loving San Diego more,” she said.

Ashanti Davis, a self-described coffee fanatic, loved the last two presentations, too.